Everyone has had a lie where the slope has you questioning how to hit it. The ball is naturally going to want to draw or fade based on the up or downhill lie.
This week, Golfweek‘s fitness guru and long driver Averee Dovsek demonstrates how to deal with those up and downhill lies with the Director of Instruction at Casa De Campo, Eric Lillibridge.
Keep these tips in mind the next time you have to deal with a sloping lie and adjust your feet placement. Hitting on a slope does not have to be scary.
If you’re interested in any of Averee’s fitness content, click here.
If you’re looking for more instruction, click here.
In April, TaylorMade dropped the P•790 Black irons and the clubs were a hit on social media. Now come the Stealth Black irons.
The vast majority of irons for both accomplished players and intermediate golfers come in a silvery-chrome finish. However, starting about a decade ago, manufacturers began to release some irons in darker tones, often applying a PVD finish (physical vapor deposition) on top of the steel to give it a black or nearly-black look. Apparel companies have known for years that black is slimming, and golf equipment companies realized that many players prefer the look of black irons because they are not only unique, but black finishes make clubs look smaller in the address position.
In April, TaylorMade dropped the P•790 Black irons and the clubs were a hit on social media.
Now TaylorMade is releasing the Stealth Black irons, a dark-finished version of the game-improvement clubs the company released last season.
Like the P•790 Black irons, the Stealth Black irons have been given a PVD finish that the company claims is strong and durable, but with play steady usage and play, it can wear down and fade over time in the hitting area and on the sole.
The Stealth Black has a polymer black piece on the back that saves weight. (TaylorMade)
From a performance standpoint, the Stealth Black irons are identical to the standard Stealth irons. TaylorMade designed the hollow-bodied head to have 450 stainless steel faces to flex efficiently at impact for increased ball speed. But instead of making the back of the head using steel, TaylorMade gave the Stealth Black irons a polymer cap that covers the back section. It’s strong and supportive, but lighter, so more of the head’s overall weight is lower in the club. That helps to drop the center of gravity location and encourage higher-flying shots.
The 4-iron though 8-iron have a Speed Pocket slot to allow the lower portion of the face to flex more easily on thin shots, and an internal polymer piece that TaylorMade calls an Echo Dampening system reduces excessive vibrations to improve sound and feel.
The hitting area of the TaylorMade Stealth Black is slightly less dark, to help golfers frame the ball more easily at address. (TaylorMade)
The TaylorMade Stealth Black irons come standard with black KBS Max MT shafts and black Lamkin Crossline 360 grips. They are available in 4-iron through Attack Wedge (49 degrees) and a set of seven clubs will cost $1,199.99 in stores and on taylormadegolf.com.
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Adams Golf is back with new woods, irons, wedges and putters that golfers can buy online and that come with a 60-day guarantee.
Fifteen years before the current golf boom started, Adams Golf was on a roll. The Plano, Texas-based company made highly regarded hybrids played by numerous PGA Tour stars off contract, disguising them by covering the clubs with headcovers from brands they were paid to use. Adams also made innovative woods, irons, wedges and putters before it was purchased by TaylorMade-Adidas Golf in 2012 for $70 million.
In the following years, some Adams Golf technologies and ideas made their way into TaylorMade clubs, but the brand faded with time. Until now.
Adams Golf – which is still owned by TaylorMade – has announced a rebranding of the company, including a new logo, a new line of clubs and a new direct-to-consumer sales approach. Adams’ target market is the large number of new players who have taken up the game over the last three years, younger golfers (27 percent of new golfers are aged 18-34 in 2020) and golfers who have rediscovered the sport. Adams is not making boxed sets for these players or focusing on max-game-improvement clubs. Instead, the goal is to offer well-made equipment that has technologies, features and benefits found in higher-priced clubs but sell those clubs at a lower cost.
People’s buying habits have changed since Adams was a prominent brand in the ’90s and 2000s, so the company is trying to make itself available to younger players and other golfers who are used to buying things online. You won’t find Adams’ new drivers, fairway woods, hybrids, irons, wedges or putters in golf shops. Instead, individual clubs and full sets can be purchased at adamsgolf.com, which all come with a 60-day, money-back guarantee.
Here’s the new Adams Idea lineup for 2023, all of which will be available for right- or left-handed golfers:
PXG’s new cavity-back delivers excellent feel and control with a touch of forgiveness.
Gear: PXG 0317 CB irons Price: $169.99 each Specs: Forged 8620 carbon steel with milled back and adjustable swing weight. Available in chrome and dark finishes
Who It’s For: Accomplished golfers who want to shape shots but need more forgiveness than a muscleback blade offers.
The Skinny: Forged for a soft feel and featuring classic looks, PXG’s newest better-player offering is a cavity-back designed to deliver excellent feel and control with a touch of forgiveness.
The Deep Dive: In March, PXG released the 0311 GEN6 P and XP irons, which can be classified as a better-player’s distance iron and a game-improvement club, but last September, the Scottsdale, Arizona-based company released the 0317 ST, a blended-iron set that combined cavity-back 3- and 4-irons with muscleback blades in the 5-iron through pitching wedge. The idea was that the game’s best players want the ultimate in precision and feel with their mid- and short-irons, but they will gladly accept a little forgiveness on long-iron shots.
The 0317 CB has a thin topline, narrow sole and very little offset. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
Now PXG is breaking that set apart and releasing the new 0317 CB as a stand-alone set of cavity-back irons for low-handicap golfers and players with a powerful, repeatable swing who are looking for control and feel around the course.
Like the previously released clubs, the 0317 CBs are triple forged using 8620 carbon steel, and the back of each head is milled to precisely create the shapes the designers intended. PXG engineers have also added a weight in the back of each head that can be changed during the fitting process to allow golfers to try different swing weights. It is a unique way for golfers to feel the difference between heavier and lighter versions of the same iron and discover which performs better. Once PXG installs the weight during the clubs’ assembly, it is not designed to be removed or swapped.
The 0317 CB has perimeter weighting to add a touch of forgiveness. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
While the 0311 GEN6 irons are hollow and then filled with a polymer to soften the feel and enhance the sound, the 0317 CB irons are solid metal. They have a shorter blade length, thinner topline and narrower sole than the 0311 GEN6 P irons.
The 0317 CB irons can be purchased as a set or bought individually, making it easier for control-oriented golfers to work with fitters and create a personalized blended set of 0317 CB and 0317 ST muscleback blades.
The 0317 CB irons are available in chrome and Xtreme Dark finish.
The newest Big Bertha family includes a slice-fighting driver and easy-to-hit fairway woods and hybrids.
Jon Rahm won the 2023 Masters Tournament using a new Callaway Paradym Triple Diamond driver and a prototype Paradym Triple Diamond 3-wood. Both are clubs designed for fast-swinging golfers who want to shape shots around the course and who have powerful, repeatable swings.
For golfers on the other side of the spectrum, Callaway has prided itself on offering game-improvement and max game-improvement clubs that are made to deliver more distance and forgiveness, often giving them the hallowed moniker of Big Bertha. The brand released the Big Bertha B21 woods and irons in the fall of 2020, and last October saw the debut of an ultra-premium offering for slower-swinging players, the Great Big Bertha line. Now it is releasing the new Big Bertha 2023 family of woods and irons.
TaylorMade is offering the P·790 in a new finish, black, for golfers who love the look of dark-toned clubs and who want reduced glare.
It has been nearly two years since TaylorMade released the current P·790 irons, and the clubs are among the most popular offerings in the brand’s stable. Why? Accomplished golfers who crave distance appreciate the clean looks in the address position and the enhanced feel boosted by Speed Foam Air inside each head, while mid-handicap golfers who need forgiveness benefit from internal tungsten weights that add stability. That makes the P·790 a contender for a broad range of players.
Now TaylorMade is offering the P·790 in a new black finish for golfers who love the look of dark-toned clubs and who want reduced glare.
From a performance standpoint, the P·790 Black irons are identical to the standard P·790, with 8620 carbon-steel bodies and thin, forged 4140 stainless steel faces. The clubs have a hollow-body construction to allow the face to flex more efficiently at impact for increased ball speed and distance. The inner chamber is filled with Speed Foam Air, a lighter version of the original material that was in the 2017 and 2019 versions. The lighter foam reduces weight in the center of club, which elevates the perimeter weighting and stability while still absorbing excessive vibrations. Finally, an internal tungsten bar drives down the center of gravity and encourages a higher launch and steeper descent of the ball for better stopping power on the greens.
The TaylorMade P·790 Black irons will be available for $1,299.99, the same price as the standard chrome set, and come standard with black KBS Tour shafts and black Golf Pride Z grips. Get a close-up look at the P·790 Black irons below.
Quality iron play is critical to winning the 2023 Masters, and these 10 golfers rank highest on the PGA Tour for good iron shots.
With all due respect to this week’s PGA Tour event, the Valero Texas Open, and with the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play completed, much of the golf world is focusing its attention on next week’s Masters.
The first men’s major championship of 2023 is shaping up to be an epic event, with stars such Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm having played well this year.
Augusta National Golf Club will test every aspect of each player’s game, but precision iron play will be especially important because it can help golfers set up birdie chances while also avoiding card-wrecking big numbers.
Below is the list of the 10 golfers who lead the PGA Tour in Strokes Gained: Approach the Green – a statistic that measures how much of an advantage a golfer has over the field based exclusively on his play from the fairway – along with the irons those players are using.
PXG made the faces of the GEN6 irons thinner to increase ball speed and provide more distance.
Gear: PXG 0311 P GEN6, 0311 XP GEN6 irons Price: $219 each Specs: Hollow-body construction with a forged 8620 carbon steel body and a milled back area, forged HT1770 stainless steel face, tungsten weights and internal polymer.
Who They’re For: The updated 0311 P and XP are for golfers who want a soft feel at impact with more ball speed and stability in a club that looks like a better-player’s iron.
The Skinny: PXG made the faces of the GEN6 irons thinner to increase ball speed and provide more distance. The 0311 P is a better-player’s distance iron, while the 0311 XP is a true game-improvement offering.
The Deep Dive: PXG has made irons that play bigger than they look for a decade. The brand’s designers aspire to create clubs that look like they belong in a single-digit-handicap golfer’s bag but deliver more power and forgiveness than a muscleback blade.
The 0311 P GEN6 and 0311 XP GEN6 irons continue that tradition by utilizing multi-material construction and a unique perimeter weight system.
Both clubs use a five-strike forging process that transforms a rod of 8620 carbon steel into the chassis. To ensure the engineers’ designs are replicated precisely every time, the back of each head is milled using a fast-spinning, computer-controlled bit that passes back and forth over the club and shaves off tiny pieces of metal.
PXG 0311 GEN6 irons have a thin HT1770 stainless steel face. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
The HT1770 stainless steel faces in the 0311 P GEN6 and 0311 XP GEN6 irons are 15 percent thinner and 5 grams lighter than the faces in the GEN5 irons. On the inner-facing side of the face, PXG added a horseshoe-shaped area that PXG refers to as a Power Channel, allowing the face to bend more efficiently around the perimeter.
PXG said that by working as a system, the lighter, more-flexible faces of GEN6 irons helps generate more ball speed and distance, especially on shots hit outside the center of the hitting area.
The U-shaped Power Channel encourages the face to flex, while the XCOR2 material supports the hitting area and absorbs vibrations. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
Inside each head, PXG adds a proprietary polymer it calls XCOR2. It fills the entire inner chamber of each head, absorbing excessive vibrations to enhance sound and feel. The material also supports the face, which PXG said would bend or break after only a few hits without the added reinforcement. While the XCOR2 supports the face, it does not inhibit the hitting area from flexing, so ball speed is not sacrificed.
To add stability, PXG added two tungsten weights screws to both the heel and toe areas of the 0311 GEN6 irons. In addition to adding perimeter weighting, the tungsten screws lower the center of gravity to encourage higher-flying shots that come down more steeply, enhancing distance control and stopping power on the greens.
The small tungsten screws add perimeter weighting, while the large center screw allows fitters to change the swing weight. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
There is also a larger screw in the middle of the back of the clubs that fitters can adjust to change the swing weight of each iron.
The 0311 P GEN6 irons are a better-player’s distance iron, and they have a shorter blade length with slightly less offset and can help golfers produce a draw or a fade more easily than the 0311 XP GEN6 irons.
The 0311 XP GEN6, in addition to being larger, is more stable and forgiving, and it should produce a higher ball flight than the 0311 P GEN6 irons.
Both clubs are available in a chrome finish accented in black or a Black Label Elite version with Xtreme Dark finish and black Steel Fiber Private Reserve shafts.
The newest Tour Edge woods and irons blend materials such as carbon fiber, tungsten and titanium to deliver more distance and forgiveness.
When Tour Edge releases new equipment in its Exotics family, the brand typically does it in pairs, partnering game-improvement woods and irons with related offerings designed for more accomplished golfers. With the new Exotics 723 Series, the Chicago-based company again has dropped two sets of drivers, fairway woods, hybrids and irons simultaneously, with the new Exotics E723 clubs (Extreme Spec) made for golfers who want more distance plus forgiveness and the Exotics C723 clubs (Competition Spec) for golfers who need lower-spinning gear that allows them to shape shots.
Below are the details on both the new E723 and the C723 woods and irons.
New muscleback blades for elite golfers, cavity-back irons that blend forgiveness and feel, they’re all here.
In the weeks leading up to the holiday season and throughout January, equipment makers released several new sets of irons designed for players at every game level. New muscleback blades for elite golfers, cavity-back irons that blend forgiveness and feel and offerings made for inexperienced players and slower swingers, they’re all here.
The trouble is finding the new set of irons that will complement your game. The best way to do that is to work with a custom fitter and hit lots of different options under the watchful eye of a launch monitor, but the list of irons below will give you a great place to start your research and narrow down your search.
